Chapter 5
"Play to the audience"
"They're gone Kat." The boy is apparently relieved to say the words.
"Good." The lady with the pale mask responds indifferently.
"Kitty..."
"I know what you're going to say Nate" she stands removing the dark robe she wore revealing starkly normal clothes "and the answer is that it has to be done like this, all the smoke and mirrors, all the mystery and show." She moves deliberately to two other tables on either side of her little one, in moments she's lit a dozen or so candles set in a metal plate; one set on the first table then another set on the other. The room is now lit though only well enough to move about.
Reaching under the second side table she withdraws a deep bag and proceeds to pack her covering garb into it.
"I just don't get it Kat, I'm only 15 and even to me it seems... well, childish." He fiddles with the fasteners of his own covering garb having difficulty.
She stands picking up the envelope and placing it into the bag walks over to him; gently swatting his hands away she undoes the most difficult fasteners then returns to her packing, he removes his cloak revealing his own common attire. Without looking he tosses the overcoat in her direction, she catches it with ease and in the bag it does to join her own.
"You're right. It is childish, but it makes them feel powerful and safe, that's what sets me apart... I'm untraceable." Two jacket are handing on thick nails near where the young man is standing, removing first the larger Nate tosses the leather jacket to her. She puts it on. Reaching into an inside pocket she retrieves a cloth mask turning her back to him she replaces the pale façade.
"But who's tracing?" He wonders donning his own jacket.
"Hm." She turns tossing the molded mask to him "That's the irony; no one is. All the caution, all the security, is just a placebo to make them feel more like real mobsters, real criminals." Having caught the façade easily he looks it over for a moment. "Like in olden times?" He stows the mask in a hard metal case.
"Like in olden times."
He shakes his head like an adult disappointed with the actions of a student "They're competing with ghosts..."
"Well put." Focusing her sea-green eyes on his blue ones she puts her gloved hand on his shoulder "Shall we go?"
Carrying nothing but the mask case and her shoulder bag Chaucer and Nate walk casually to the back of the building where they exit through a heavy metal door with a hydraulic arm at the top. The door slowly inches toward the frame taking several minutes to close the gap, when finally it arrives there is a mechanical click as it shuts. The only sound remaining is the methodical tick of a clock timer.
15 minutes after they've gone there's an explosion and then a fire that illuminates the street.